HYDERABAD: The Indian government is lobbying with certain unregulated markets to accept Indian Pharmacopoeia, realizing that most domestic drug makers cannot upgrade their manufacturing facilities to global standards set by the US FDA for exporting medicines.

India’s commerce ministry is in talks with at least 10 such unregulated economies and will have a detailed meeting with their regulators and enforcement authorities next month to impress upon them about the superior Indian drug standards. These countries include Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Iran, Ukraine, Belarus, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya among others.

A top commerce ministry official said a meeting of regulators and enforcement authorities of these 10 odd unregulated economies would take place at Mysore next month. "These markets are currently accepting either the British Pharmacopoeia (BP) or the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) while sourcing medicines from India," Director-General of Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) PV Appaji told ET.

"If we are successful in convincing these markets to accept the Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP), then it helps many Indian medicine manufacturers, which are solely following IP, to save significantly on time, packaging and other costs needed to adopt either BP or USP."

Pharmacopoeia is a set of standards and quality specifications for ingredients, preparation and dosage forms of medicines manufactured, sold, consumed and exported in a country. According to information on World Health Organization’s website, there are 140 independent countries that are currently adopting around 30 national and African, European and International Pharmacopoeias.

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